Finally, a sergeant was dug out by more than a dozen soldiers in the shortest possible time.
But, he died.
Not only was he buried and suffocated by the collapsed fortifications, but the blood still flowing from the corners of his mouth showed that his internal organs were also shaken by the terrible shock wave.
There was no time to feel sad. They patted the shoulders of the young deputy squad leader of the Sichuan Army who was still squatting in the ruins to express their gratitude. The officers and soldiers of the 67th Army entered their fighting positions one after another.
Only the young deputy monitor with an annoyed look in his eyes was left behind.
Then, he saw his squad leader walking towards him.
The young soldier's face was covered with sweat and he was breathing heavily. His eyes could not help but sparkle again.
At this moment, he was no longer the deputy squad leader calmly analyzing the battlefield for two signal soldiers, no longer a warrior bravely rescuing his comrades in the face of possible Japanese artillery fire, but rather like a child who had been wronged in front of his parents.
.
He wanted to save his life, but he came out too slowly after all, and the Northeast Army sergeant died anyway.
"Dongguan! I'm not dead, I'm fine!" The young deputy squad leader forced himself to remain calm and tried his best to smile, but his voice with a heavy cry still exposed his vulnerability at this time.
“You did a good job, go and take a rest first.” The veteran looked at the deputy he was holding with one hand, with pity flashing in his eyes.
“But the Japs are coming.” The young deputy squad leader shook his head.
"When the Japs come up, they will naturally be beaten. This is a special order given by the battalion commander to the three of you. From now on, all observation posts will have this kind of treatment. Just go if you are told." The veteran's eyes widened.
The soldier wanted to say more, but saw the sharp eyes of the veteran squad leader. At that moment, he did not dare to resist anymore. He was pulled by two signal soldiers who followed him into a bullet shelter more than two meters deep underground belonging to their infantry platoon.
The Japanese infantry did not come up so fast, and the position seemed a little quiet for a while.
In addition to their three observation posts, there were two medical soldiers packing stretchers and their small medicine boxes in the bomb shelter.
They had just experienced a bombardment like a roaring mountain and a tsunami. It seemed that the three of them were fine like normal people. In fact, their nerves had been in a state of high tension. When they suddenly relaxed, their bodies suffered from the fatigue sequelae of working continuously for a day and night.
As soon as they appeared, fatigue came up like a tide, drowning the three soldiers, who were all over 20 years old.
At the moment when the war was about to begin, the three soldiers who were leaning against the still wet wall of the cave fell into a deep sleep.
By the time the young soldier woke up from his deep sleep, he didn't know when it was.
The two signal soldiers who had been relying on him were gone. There were only corpses on the ground, the seriously wounded groaning, and two health soldiers who were busy running around. He instantly mistakenly thought that Cangcheng had been captured.
When he anxiously asked the two health soldiers, he realized that it had been about half an hour later.
The battle became intense from the beginning. The Japanese army actually directly invested more than 500 Japanese troops, led by four 89 tanks, to attack from three sides of the city walls.
Not only did they have enough troops, but what was even more frightening was that the Japanese army used more than 16 heavy machine guns, 6 infantry guns, and 4 rapid-fire cannons for cover.
That is definitely not equipment that a large group can have.
Yes, because the main infantry brigade under his command had to serve as the forward under the wrath of the lieutenant general division commander, in order to avoid excessive losses under his command, the captain of the 115th Regiment, who arrived with the main force of the division, directly sent the regiment's infantry artillery squad
and rapid-fire artillery squadron were assigned to them, but feeling that it was not safe yet, an additional heavy machine gun squadron from another infantry brigade was assigned to join them.
In terms of firepower alone, this is definitely a reinforced infantry brigade.
Otherwise, Junichi Watanabe would not have had the courage to send three infantry squadrons to attack a fortress with a five-meter-high wall after the first round of shelling.
Not only that, the crazy Japanese army even concentrated dozens of grenade launchers to suppress the firepower at the top of the city.
But obviously, the greatest threat to the city wall fortifications is still the Type 89 tank. Due to the lack of flat-fire guns to suppress the tanks, many heavy firepower points at the top of the city suffered heavy losses.
There are basically no reserves in Cangcheng now. Except for the medical soldiers of each infantry company who need to stay to take care of the seriously wounded, all those who can handle rifles have already gone to the battlefield.
He fell into a complete coma like a dead corpse. No one noticed him, and the two signal soldiers who woke up from their sleep couldn't bear to disturb him, so he could sleep until now.
Very annoyed, the young deputy squad leader picked up the rifle that had been kept beside him and rushed to the ground through the slope without hesitation.
Climb back to the ground one minute earlier, and the chance of death will increase countless times. This is a truth that all fools understand. But the young soldier has never wanted to live and die with his comrades as now.
Even at this moment, for the first time, he did not think about his mother who was far away in his hometown. He just wanted to stay with his comrades, even if the next moment, he would die in the terrible Japanese tank gunfire.
Yes, this is how his comrades died in Dachang Town.
Why he was so eager to dig out the Northeastern Army soldiers buried in the rubble? It was because he had been timid before, and that was something he had never been able to face.
On the penultimate day of the Battle of Dachang Town, Japanese artillery fire destroyed a light machine gun fortification built against a residential building.
He was less than twenty meters away from the fortification. He watched with his own eyes as the house collapsed like building blocks after being hit by a 70mm infantry cannon. The light machine gun inside, which could provide fire cover for the infantry, could no longer fire a single shot.
Shoot bullets.
Of course he knew the light machine gunner. He was the senior sergeant Pockmarked second only to the veteran squad leader in the squad. When the light machine gunners in the company were exhausted, he volunteered to serve as the light machine gunner.
Everyone knows that the firepower points that are heavily cared for by Japanese artillery and grenade launchers have the highest death rate on this battlefield. So much so that when there are several heavy machine gun firepower points, no one is willing to be a shooter anymore. But after more than 8 years in the army
The pockmarked face still took the initiative to go away.
Then, the light machine gun firepower point that only fired two magazines was destroyed by the Japanese army's precise infantry artillery.
But the young soldier knew that the pockmarked man was not necessarily dead. The infantry artillery did not hit his shooting area head-on. The entire house collapsed due to the blast wave. If he digs now, he has a high chance of digging him out.
However, he was afraid that when he climbed up the ruins, he would be spotted by the Japanese infantry who were still 400 meters away. Their marksmanship was not very accurate.
So, he waited until the Japanese army stopped attacking, and then ran over to remove the beams and bricks. It was a small house with not many buildings. Soon, the hand of the person he was looking for showed up.
However, he only took one look and knew that he was late after all.
It was a pockmarked hand, and there was a heavy brass ring on the already pale and browned finger. He bought it when he was marching to Songhu and passed through Jiangxia. He said proudly last night when he was setting up the dragon gate formation in the trench.
He must keep it as a dowry for his fifteen-year-old daughter.
The hand with the brass ring stretched upward in vain, showing that before death, he had tried hard to save himself, trying to push aside the heavy roof beams and bricks to find a way out.
However, his comrades let him down, and no one came to help him. Even the little brother he usually took good care of chose to wait until he died because he was afraid of death.
The old soldier died with a pockmarked face, but the young soldier had inner demons.
No one blamed him, and he didn't say it himself, but when he desperately dug out his Northeastern Army comrades buried on the top of the city, he knew that he would never forget his cowardice.
This time, he was not cowardly. The Japanese artillery was still bombarding him. He tried hard, but still failed.
His squad leader also understood, so he strictly ordered his deputy squad leader to go down to rest, otherwise, he was worried that this young man who had actually grown up very well would collapse due to the heavy pressure in his heart.
The moment the young deputy squad leader with many inner demons rushed out of the bullet shelter with a gun, he was extremely open-minded. If he couldn't go back, he would be buried with his comrades!
